Officers Conduct Sex Offender Compliance Checks in Ector County

ECTOR COUNTY, TX (KWES) - Registered sex offenders throughout Ector County were inspected Thursday night by officers as part of an annual series of compliance checks.

Operation: REAP - an acronym for "Registration, Enforcement, Apprehension and Prosecution" - kicked off around 6:30 p.m. at the Odessa Police Department.

85 officers from more than 10 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies set off to make sure "registered sex offenders are living where they're supposed to be living," detectives explained.

Officers were dispatched to conduct compliance checks on a total of 157 registered sex offenders in the city of Odessa and Ector County, according to Odessa Police Detective Dayton Neff.

"This is something we do every year," he said. "It may go on [for hours], depending on how long it takes for us to find what we're looking for."

Convicted sex offenders in Texas are required by law to report their home address, phone number, vehicle registration information and other personal details.

Subjects living at an unregistered address and determined to be out of compliance could face a third-degree felony charge, Neff said.

The information verified Thursday night by REAP team members is part of a public database accessible online.

"There's a website maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety," Neff explained. "You can just Google 'Texas sex offenders and it will come up. You can search by Ector County. You can search by name. You can search by address. You can search by zip codes. It will let you know where a sex offender is living if you have any living near you."